Brief Guide To Drill Press And Its Applications

The drill press has unprecedentedly gained popularity over the years. Its commitment to precision, controllable speed, flexibility and versatility ingrained in the design, and unmatched safety standards offered by a press drill making it numero uno choice among wood and metal workers, and superseding the traditional handheld drills that are plagued with its own limitations. In this article, I will concisely introduce you to this powerful tool and educate you about the working of the variety of drilling operations can be carried out using this “a must have phenomenal gadget”.

What is a drill press?

The drill press is also known as drill machine, is primarily a precision tool, capable of boring holes when the location and orientation of the hole must be controlled accurately by lowering the tool to the work-piece fixed on some immovable object like a workbench.

Drill presses are popularly used by woodworkers and metal workers as it is one of the best equipment they can add to their workshop. Since the spindle is fixed and do not deviate due to jerks which generally happens with a normal handheld drill, it can give you a very accurate cut or bore in the intended object. In last few years with advances in the technology, drill machine has emerged as an efficient replacement to traditional handheld drills that have limitations regarding their accuracy, flexibility, and ease-of-use. It goes without saying that drill press has overwhelming advantages over a normal handheld drill.

What is a drill press used for?

Regardless of their sizes and designs drill presses are operated in a similar fashion. The drill press is equipped with a variety of attachments such as reamer, a deburring tool etc. which makes it way more convenient to be used in any type of drilling operations. Although a drill press is primarily used for drilling or cutting holes, it can also be efficiently used for deburring a hole, reaming and tapping it. The accuracy, enormous power, unadulterated speed, versatility to operate on large and thick work-pieces alike, sublime functionality and raised safety standards offered by a drill press making it a fitting alternative for majority wood and metal workers. Want to see which drill press impressed – and which didn’t? Head straight to the best drill press for woodworking to get our verdict!

Drilling Holes –

Drilling holes out of a large or thick wood work-piece in a precise manner is a laborious task for woodworkers if handled with a normal handheld drill. Thankfully due to the accuracy of the drill press, it can be used for a lot more accurate drilling operations. Alignment between an adjustable spindle and the material to be drilled on saw a table maintains the accuracy factor. Adaptability of spindle makes the drilling operation much more comfortable and easier for simple tasks.

Deburring a Hole –

Once you have finished drilling a hole, more often than not it is found out that while the top surface of the material stays clear but the bottom surface of the material gets disproportionate and burred. The deburring process comes into effect for clearing out the disproportionate surface and getting rid of burrs left behind while drilling a hole. Deburring a hole is, a lot easier than you might have guessed, done simply by attaching a deburring tool you are equipped with to the press drill and putting it in the hole with minimal pressure.

Reaming a Hole –

When drilled with a press drill, a hole is enough precise but in the specific case if you want to achieve the higher degree of precision then you can achieve it by using the attachment named Reamer. For spotless outcomes, the reamer should be driven with constant and decreased speed. The flexibility of a drill press to adapt to decreased speed as much as it needed to make it a prime choice for reaming a hole.

Tapping a Hole –

Sometimes it is required to cut threads inside a drilled hole. Without a surprise, there is no better tool than a drill press to carry out this task and reason being: The taps are either very brittle or hard in nature. Brittle nature of the taps made it clear that they need to be treated with extra care and precise measurements. There is no better alternative than a drill press for this kind of operation making it the most preferred candidate. By now you have must be understood how simple and straightforward mechanism drill press has and why it is popular among wood and metal workers and how it is a need of an hour for convenient and precise drilling.

About Author

Christopher Ewart

Christopher is a professional woodworker based out of San Francisco, California. He loved to articulate things around woodworking whenever he gets time. He has contributed top quality articles on magazines like Forbes and HowStuffWorks.